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September 4, 2025

Three Themes of Teshuva in Ursula K. LeGuin’s A Wizard of Earthsea

Dan Margulies

Dan Margulies

Rabbi Dan Margulies teaches Tanakh, Talmud, and Halakha at the Berman Hebrew Academy in Rockville MD and teaches Talmud in the Drisha summer kollel. He received his semikha from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah and from his personal mentor Dayan Simcha Krauss ztz”l, and continued his studies in the kollel at YU-RIETS. Before pursuing his yeshiva studies, he earned a BA in Chemical Physics and Mathematics from Columbia University. He previously served as a congregational rabbi in the New York area and currently lives in Washington DC.

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Ursula K. LeGuin’s opening novel of her Earthsea series tells the coming-of-age of a haughty young man who searches for maturity, peace, and self-forgiveness after releasing a terrible danger into the world. Using passages from the novel paired and contrasted with classic rabbinic texts we will explore themes in the process of teshuva/repentance including the role of spoken articulation, the fracture/wholeness of one’s self after failure and sin, and the positive impact of friends and support networks to personal growth.

Session 1

Session 2